San Diego's Smith hits 10th-inning homer to down Twins

MINNEAPOLIS – With San Diego given new life thanks to a rally in the top of the ninth inning and a great defensive play in the bottom half, Seth Smith made sure the Padres finished their comeback in style.
Smith, a left fielder, blasted a 414-foot shot over the wall in right field for his 12th homer of the season in the top of the 10th inning, lifting the Padres to a 5-4 win over the Minnesota Twins on Wednesday at Target Field.
“You feed off of that kind of stuff,” Smith said. “But when you get in the box, it’s an at-bat and you have to be able to calm yourself and approach it like any other at-bat.
“It’s nice to win a game like that. That was a good baseball game. Back and forth. Both teams were good today. It’s fun to win. Those are the games you need to win where it can go either way and you have to figure out as a team how to make it go in your direction.”
Padres manager Bud Black said, “He’s got pull-power, especially against fastballs. He got a fastball and he hit it.”
The Twins were three outs from taking the two-game series and winning all four games against the Padres this season.
But closer Glen Perkins allowed a leadoff double to first baseman Yonder Alonso and a walk to catcher Rene Rivera. A sacrifice by Alexei Amarista moved both runners into scoring position and Alonso scored on a sinking sacrifice fly to right by shortstop Everth Cabrera.
In the bottom of the inning, Amarista saved the game, making a fantastic running catch in deep center to rob Twins shortstop Eduardo Escobar of a walk-off hit.
“No doubt, a game-saver,” Black said.
Twins manager Ron Gardenhire said, “When he hit it, I thought ‘game over.’ We just saw the whole outfield move in with two strikes and he moved way in. When that ball was hit, we thought he had no chance to run that one down.”
Third baseman Trevor Plouffe knocked in three runs for Minnesota, blasting a two-run homer in the first inning to give the Twins an early advantage and knocking in another with an RBI single in sixth, breaking a 3-3 tie.
San Diego struggled to do much of anything against Twins starter Kevin Correia in the early going, not even getting a runner on base until the top of the third inning. A one-out single by designated hitter Tommy Medica in the fourth inning ahead of an RBI double by second baseman Jedd Gyorko got the Padres on the board.
SD ab r h bi MIN ab r h bi
Cabrera ss 4 1 1 1 Santana cf 3 1 0 0
Solarte 3b 4 1 0 0 Dozier 2b 5 1 1 0
Smith lf 4 1 2 2 Plouffe 3b 4 1 2 3
Medica dh 5 1 2 1 Nunez pr 1 0 0 0
Gyorko 2b 5 0 1 1 Vargas dh 4 1 1 0
Venable cf 5 0 0 0 Arcia rf 3 0 0 0
Alonso 1b 4 1 3 0 Parml 1b 4 0 0 0
Grandal c 2 0 0 0 Escobar ss 5 0 2 1
Rivera ph 0 0 0 0 Fryer c 4 0 2 0
Frncour rf 2 0 0 0 Suzuki ph 1 0 1 0
Amrist ph 1 0 0 0 Schafer lf 4 0 1 0
Totals 36 5 9 5 Totals 38 4 10 4
San Diego 000 102 001 1- 5
Minnesota 200 011 000 0- 4
E-S.Smith 2. LOB-Minnesota 14, San Diego 7. 2B-Alonso 2 (19), Fryer (2), Gyorko (8), S.Smith (23). HR-Plouffe (8), S.Smith (12). SB-Dozier (18), Nunez (6), Da.Santana (9), Schafer (2).
IP H R ER BB SO
San Diego
Despaigne 5 X\c 8 4 4 3 5
A.Torres 2 1 0 0 1 1
Vincent Z\c 0 0 0 0 1
Quackenbush W, 2-2 1 0 0 0 2 1
Benoit S, 4 1 1 0 0 1 0
Minnesota
Correia 6 5 3 3 1 3
Duensing 0 1 0 0 1 0
Burton H, 12 2 1 0 0 1 1
Perkins BS, 4 1 1 1 1 1 0
Swarzak L, 2-1 1 1 1 1 0 1
Inherited runners-scored-A.Torres 1-0, Vincent 1-0, Burton 2-0. HBP-Da.Santana 2 (by Despaigne).
Umpires-Home, Marvin Hudson; First, Toby Basner; Second, Hunter Wendelstedt; Third, Mike DiMuro.
T-3:45. A-34,567 (42,035)